Lovesick
by ihateyou but iloveyou
Summary: When Rachel is affected by an illness, she's found by Nico on the camp grounds. After she heals, Nico then discovers just how important she is- to the future, to the heroes, to the camp- and maybe to him too. Set after TLO.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. **

**BUT I CAN TOTALLY WRITE RANDOM JUNK ^.^ **

**Rachel POV**:

I was sick. Well, I felt sick. I had a huge headache. My head was about to split open. I leaned against the wall of my cave, trying not to faint. I knew this either meant that I was about to spew some freaky oracle nonsense, or I was really and truly sick. Either way, I had to get to camp.

I grabbed a sweater and ducked through the small doorway. The motion sent the whole world spinning, adding to the uncomfortable sensation I was feeling. As I walked down the hill, I mentally went over the list of foods I'd eaten the last few days, trying to find anything that might have been spoiled.

I was almost at the cabins when a whole new wave of nausea washed over me. The whole world turned sideways. Lying on the cold damp grass, I realized one good thing: at least this wasn't a prophecy after all.

Then I blacked out.

**Nico POV:**

The time when I feel the most comfortable is nighttime. Being the son of Hades, I regularly enjoyed walks around the camp when the shadows are at their peak, and plus, no one ever bothered me about it. All the other campers were terrified of me, with the exception of Percy and Annabeth.

I was taking my daily route, circling around the cabins. Another reason why I could stay up past curfew- I was almost like a night guard.

Today, I noticed something unusual, just beyond the cabins. It felt like a mortal dying, or was on the verge of it.

That was odd, I thought. No mortals are allowed on the grounds, and even if they could, the barrier would stop prevent them from entering.

I hurried forward. If someone really was dying, I wanted to be there to save them, or at least take them out of their misery.

When I got there, I saw what it was. A girl was lying on the ground, shivering. She had flaming red hair, and she was out cold.

With my limited knowledge of illnesses, I figured that it would be smarter to take her to the Big House so the people with the experience could help her.

I scooped her up, bridal-style. She was burning hot, and I was pretty sure that it wasn't a good sign. She stirred a little bit, but otherwise stayed unconscious. I hoped that I didn't hurt her in her seemingly fragile state.

Taking a deep breath, I shadow-traveled with her to the Big House.

**What do you guys think? It's not done yet, and I hope it won't turn out to be too long. Leave a review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.**

**Nico POV:**

When I got to the Big House, I nearly dropped her in surprise. In the light from the windows, I saw that she was Rachel Dare. As in Rachel the Oracle. What if Apollo found out she was sick, and blamed it on me? I was pretty sure there was only so much I could protect myself before a god fried me to a crisp, after all.

Shrugging the thought aside, I knocked loudly on the front door. When nobody answered, I knocked again. Sure, I could have shadow-traveled in, but that's really rude. I do have some manners.

A few minutes later, Mr. D opened the door and poked his head out.

"Who is it? Pesky campers, thinking they can disturb me just because I'm on probation," he grumbled.

I stepped out of the shadows. I guess my appearance was pretty surprising, because Mr. D jumped about a foot in the air.

"Nate! What is possibly so urgent that you need to knock on my door so late at night?" he exclaimed, purposely saying my name wrong.

I stuck Rachel out in front of me. "I think she's sick. I found her in the field behind the cabins," I explained.

Chiron arrived just then, saving me from having to convince a grumpy Mr. D that I was telling the truth.

"What's going on?" he asked.

I repeated my earlier explanation.

He invited me in, and I laid Rachel out on the couch in the front room.

"She doesn't look very good, does she?" Chiron asked, leaning over. "Well, she's probably just sleeping from a cold. As the Oracle, she's a bit more sensitive than we are."

Chiron stood up. "Either way, I suggest someone watches over her for tonight, and we'll take her to the doctor if she gets any worse."

"I'll do it," I volunteered. I was totally capable of staying up all night, and I felt a bit guilty, as if I was the one who made her sick since I was the one who found her.

Anyways, she was the Oracle. It was probably never dull with her around.

**I seriously have no idea if Oracles really are weaker than other people, but I didn't want to get Rachel really sick. :P**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. If I did, I wouldn't be typing this while waiting for my piano lesson…**

**Rachel POV:**

As I slept, I dreamt.

The first thing I saw was an image that was so perfect, I resolved to draw it when I woke up. There were eight people sitting around a dinner table laden with food, obviously celebrating. There was a red-headed woman that I assumed was myself, sitting next to a man that looked suspiciously like Nico. A girl and a boy, looking stunningly identical, sat next to me. Across the table, another couple sat together with two children next to them. Due to the woman's glaring look at the blue-green eye man, I guessed that it was Annabeth and Percy.

I couldn't help but smile, even in my sleep. It figured that even in my dreams, Annabeth would be mad at Percy about something. I relaxed and tried to commit every detail in the scene to memory.

Before I had a chance to inspect the scene more carefully, it changed into something else, a memory this time.

When I was ten, I wandered into a casino by accident. I had felt the need to go inside, to see something of monumental importance. I was halfway inside when the need had evaporated into a warning sign: a giant alarm that it was dangerous, that I shouldn't have taken the first step in. I had turned around and ran, but not before I saw a boy in a daze, wandering around with another person, looking like death.

That scene had haunted me for many years, until I turned twelve and decided that the whole trip was probably just a dream. I tried to find the casino again, but when I went back, it wasn't there, as if it never existed, emphasizing my theory that it wasn't real.

Suddenly, the pieces then fit themselves together in my mind, with such perfect clarity that I felt stupid for not realizing it the second that I had met the boy in my dream.

Nico.

**A/N: Yay, I'm done my high school applications! Now I can finally get back to writing this crazy, messed up story. (:**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hello people! Sorry for not updating sooner. I suffer a severe illness called "procrastination" (pro-crass-tin-ai-shun). It's "to put off intentionally and habitually". Medication doesn't help, but I'm trying to overcome it! So far, the only thing I can do about it is set a due date for my work. So now I'm going to try to update very week. (:**

**I still don't own PJO!**

**And I don't own Twilight either.**

Nico POV:

Watching people sleep is very boring.

I don't know what I was expecting. A while ago, I had read Twilight at the insistence of Bianca. I was visiting Dad in the Underworld, and she had rushed to me, waving Dad's copy of her favorite book. She had always asked to me read when she was alive, so figured the least I could do for her was to read it. In the strangely addicting novel, the boy watched the girl sleep, and she did lots of weird things, like talking.

I cringed mentally. If Rachel started talking, I was out of there.

She shifted, and I eyed her apprehensively, hoping for some action. It probably wasn't the best idea to get a kid with ADHD to babysit a person that was temporarily brain-dead.

Her eyes opened, and I felt like I was intruding on her personal space.

"Good morning, Nico," she said, as if this happened to her every day. (Then again, as the Oracle, she probably had her fair share of strangeness. She did fly into the middle of an epic battle to break up with Percy, after all.)

"It's in the middle of the night," was my clever response.

She stretched like a cat, I couldn't help but staring. That girl was scary flexible.

"Okay, good middle-of-the-night," she smiled. "Could you get that for me?"

She nodded towards a bottle of painkillers on the coffee table.

Grabbing it, I asked, "So what happened, anyways?"

She gulped down the medicine and blushed.

"It's a long story."

"I've got time."


End file.
